FEMA a Whole Community Approach article/Paper - Essay Example

This agency is known for its contribution to the rescue operations of other agencies, in addition to putting out fires in various places. Fire and rescue Services, during their operations, involve the community both in prevention of disasters, as well as rescue operations at disaster occurrences. In preventing disasters, the fire and rescue service discuss safety in establishments such as schools, hotels, offices and even churches. By doing this they create awareness so that unnecessary fire outbreaks are avoided.

When disasters occur, the fire and rescue services apply the whole community approach by training the public on how to behave when disasters strike. To emphasize this point, the public are trained on how to handle a fire extinguisher and how to use the emergency doors. They are also told to calmly evacuate the building when such disasters strike. This goes a long way in containing such disasters and saving lives and property. To achieve this, the fire and rescue agency must learn and understand the community, in terms of its leaders, social patterns and generally its organization (Reese, 2013).

The fire and rescue service also involve the community by training those who volunteer as fire fighters and are willing to risk their lives in order to save their fellow men. In addition to this, the volunteers, having been trained, also go along way in warning and educating the community more when they sense disaster occurrence. There exist volunteer groups that assist during disasters and they include the community emergency response team, CERT, medical reserve corps, MRC, and the fire corps.

CERT is mainly focused on training and education of the public in relation to basic skills needed in responding to disasters (Reese, 2013). MRC on the other hand are trained to assist the medical team during disasters. Fire corps is trained citizens who offer assistance during rescue operations at fire outbreaks. This exercise is enhanced through a good relation between the fire rescue agency, community leaders, and the community as whole. The fire and rescue agency also plans for occurrence of disasters.

This, they do by regularly servicing their equipment and establishing evacuation and fire assembly points in various institutions. They also involve the community by holding discussions and negotiations to strategize on what to do when disasters occur (FPPSP Summit, 2013). This is effective since each member of the community will know what to do when disasters occur. By holding such meetings, other useful resources can be obtained, for instance, a retired electrical engineer who can identify faults in the electrical connections, thus avoid fire outbreaks; a nurse or paramedic in the town who can offer emergency care to those injured during disasters.

The fire departments also strive to maintain good working relationships with other fire and rescue services. Activities such as the ‘burn and learn’ enhance these working conditions and foster good relationships. This is instrumental during the occurrences of disasters since many agencies come out to help. After disaster, many damages affect the community. The fire and rescue services ensure engagement of the community so that it is able to bounce back after the disaster is contained. From the above points, it is evident that the whole community based approach to